Mountain Paths
by Kidd2
Summary: Aila's attempt to get used to the mountains while traveling with Geddoe and Company. Suikoden III fluff!


**"Mountain Paths"**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Suikoden. Konami does. Sucks to be me. 

Credit goes to **Eightfold** for letting me steal an idea from her wonderful fic "Slash and Burn". I suggest you read her fic first before reading this one; you'll see where I got this story idea. Oh, this is an Aila/Jacques story (NOT Aila x Jacques, there is a difference). The story takes place around the time where Geddoe & Co are trying to go to Caleria, after something bad happens to Aila. Basically, there is neither plot nor purpose to this fic; I just love Jacques. Anyway, on to the bloody story. 

**Spoilers**: None, really. I suggest you play at least Geddoe Chapter 1 to have some idea of who the characters are, and what the context of the story is. 

___

She thought she was going to die. 

Or at least, wished she would. She wasn't meant for this type of terrain, she thought, panting. As she aimed yet another arrow at what seemed to be the hundredth red fiery salamander to attack her party that day, she willed herself not to pass out on the hard gravel floor of the mountain path. Her teammates, more experienced fighters than she, didn't seem to be as exhausted as she was. The blonde haired man standing a few feet away from her shot an arrow from his bow gun and killed the flying salamander. Her teammates searched the bloodied salamander carcass, looking for any spoils they could take. The girl hunched over and breathed in relief; she doubted she could have lasted another round of battle. 

"Aila! Come on, we're going!" called a tall, dark-haired woman. She beckoned for Aila to catch up with the rest of the party. 

"Sorry, Queen, coming!" Aila stood up, willing herself to last until their next short break. She ran up to the rest of her party, and continued up the steep, winding road.

"You're not used to mountains, are you, Aila?" asked one of her teammates, a man with black hair and a moustache. 

"I'll be fine, Joker, I've just never been on a mountain before. This place sure is different from the Yaza plains." replied Aila, who was focusing all her energy on walking up the path. 

"Hey, she's doing better than you, old man!" taunted a scruffy looking man who was walking next to Queen. "Look at you, you're about to pass out right here! What's an old guy like you doing as a mercenary still?"

Joker turned around and scowled at the unkempt man. "The hell are you doing calling me an old man, Ace? I bet you're about to die on this path too!" Ace and Joker continued to fight for a few more minutes; the rest of the team patiently waited around until they finished bickering. Aila was used to this by now; their fights were fairly easy to ignore. 

"Come on, there's a campsite just a ways ahead." said the leader of the group, a tall, dark-haired man with an eye patch. 

"Yeah, Geddoe's right, there should be a camp site halfway a few miles from here. We should be able to stop for the night in a bit." said Ace, peering at a wrinkled map. 

"When the hell did you learn how to read a map? Why didn't you just stick with your trashy novels?" quipped Joker, who decided to take a turn giving Ace a hard time. 

"Hey, at least I can read, old man! That's more than you can say!" Ace once again stopped, and turned to squabble with Joker. 

"Will you stop calling me an old man? It's not like you're that much younger than me!" Ace brandished his sais, ready to attack Joker. Joker started glowing red, signaling that he was going to use a fire spell. Aila rolled her eyes at their antics. She had thought the boys her age in her village were immature, but now she had no hope for the entire male population of the world after spending just a few days with Ace and Joker. 

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Queen walked up to the two, her hands crossed over her chest, an irate expression on her face. "We'll never get to Caleria at this rate. Stop acting like kids and hurry up!"Ace and Joker could handle many things, but an angry Queen was definitely out of their league. Shrugging, and silently agreeing on a temporary truce, they started the walk up the mountain path.

"This is taking forever…" Aila muttered under her breath. She had no idea how hard it would be to become a mercenary. She had only fought monsters on the plains, and had no problems defeating the axe-wielding bunnies and the wild boars that populated the Grasslands. She could run five miles with ease on the Plains; she was one of the fittest warriors her clan had seen. The mountain paths were different, however. She had a much harder time functioning on the elevated heights, as she could hardly breathe. Not only was the air much thinner than what she was used to, it was also incredibly dry and dusty. Aila found herself choking on all the dust, and wishing for a glass of water. 

"Heh, Aila, are the roads tough for you?" said a smiling Queen. "You'll get used to them eventually. The air's much thinner this high up, so it's easier for you to get wiped out. It took me forever to get used to fighting on these roads."

"Yeah…puff…Queen…I'll even…huff…tually get used to…it all…" Aila croaked, still struggling to breathe. 

"Ask Jacques later on if he'll give you some tips on how to breathe up here. He's the one who helped me out when I first started trekking through these things." Aila turned and looked back at the blonde haired man who was bringing up the rear of the party with Captain Geddoe. He had said no more than a word the entire trip from the Grasslands. In fact, he had pretty much stayed expressionless during their entire trip. 

"Jacques…is…puff…kind of…huff…odd." said Aila quietly in between huffs and puffs to Queen. "He's…so…huff… silent!" 

"Ah, just get to know him. Jacques is actually rather nice, he's just shy. He'll talk to you if you talk to him." replied Queen with her trademarked all-knowing smile. Aila turned and looked back at Jacques' sullen-looking face. He was so serious, so quiet, so…so…weird, thought Aila. 

They continued their arduous walk up the path, stopping to fight the occasional battle here and there. As dusk fell, they came upon a relatively flat clearing. 

"Here we are." said Geddoe tersely. "Let's start setting up camp." The group immediately moved to follow his order, and soon three worn tents were set up around a small crackling fire. 

"Hey, old man, it took you long enough to start that fire up! Can't you use that rune of yours any quicker?" Ace snidely commented to Joker. 

"At least I could start the fire for us! What the hell would you have done if I wasn't here, rub two sticks together? And stop calling me an old man!" Joker retorted. As they continued to argue once again, Aila walked away from the clearing. She walked for a few minutes until she saw a path leading to a cliff jutting off the mountain path. Squinting to see in the fading light, she saw a familiar blue-clad figure sitting at the edge of the cliff. Hey, is that Jacques? Aila thought to herself. 

"Well, I can't blame him for wanting to escape from Ace and Joker's thirtieth fight of the day." she muttered to herself. "They always argue about the same things anyway. Perhaps I should just tell them that they're both old; maybe that will settle the problem." Smiling at the thought of their reaction to her proclamation, she looked back up at Jacques, who was sitting facing away from her. "Maybe I'll go say hello…Queen did say he was nice, after all." She climbed the rocky mountain path to where Jacques was sitting. She shaded her eyes from the setting sun, and greeted the sitting figure. "Hi, Jacques." she said to his back. 

Jacques didn't even turn around. "…Hi." This was going to be a challenge. All he's doing is sitting and staring into space! Aila thought, annoyed. 

"So, what are you doing up here? Getting away from Ace and Joker?" Aila asked nonchalantly. She had to find something they could talk about. 

"No, it's just pretty here." said Jacques, who continued to stare off into the darkening horizon. Aila decided to take a risk, and sat down next to Jacques. She noticed that he very slightly glanced at her as she sat down. Well, he's at least acknowledging that I'm here. Might as well talk to him now, Aila thought to herself. She continued to make attempts at conversation with Jacques, who responded in monosyllabic "Yeahs…" and his characteristic bits of silence. Finally, Aila gave up, and proceeded to watch the sun set silently with Jacques. As dusk faded into a chilly night, Aila found herself at ease. Jacques is a little weird, granted, but not that bad, she thought, stealing a glance at the blonde haired man. Maybe he's just always preoccupied or something. 

"…with the mountains?" said Jacques, who had actually turned to face Aila. 

"Huh, what?" She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice that he had actually spoken to her. 

"I noticed you looked like you were having a hard time with walking up the mountains. Do you want some help with learning how to breathe up here?" Jacques repeated. He showed no signs of annoyance of having to repeat his statement; he just looked at her with his characteristic blank stare. 

"Uh, sure. If you think it will help." replied Aila, surprised at his offer. Wow, she thought, he actually said something to me. 

They spent about an hour near the cliff. He helped her to learn the new breathing patterns she would need to properly conquer the winding paths that crisscrossed all over the mountains. Aila learned quickly, and could soon feel herself becoming accustomed to the thin, dusty air; soon, she found herself comfortably running short distances. 

"Wow, Jacques, you're really good at this. Thank you so much! I can actually breathe now! I'll be able to keep up tomorrow on the rest of the mountain paths!" said Aila merrily, thanking her teacher. 

"No problem." was Jacques response to her praise. He didn't appear to be as solemn as usual; Aila could almost see a glint of emotion in his eyes. Maybe he'll be more willing to talk occasionally now, she thought happily. 

"Hey, Jacques, how did you get to be so good at all this? You're a great archer, and you also have great skill in learning how to adapt to everything.I think that's pretty impressive." she praised him, grinning.

"Practice." was all he said, but Aila could have sworn that she saw the tiniest of smiles cross his normally grim face in the moonlight. Hey, he's not so bad after all. I kind of even like him, Aila thought, smiling to herself. Maybe we'll get to be friends or something during our travels together. She didn't mind the idea of spending more time with Jacques; he was nice to her, if a little laconic. 

"Hey, here you two are!" said a voice coming out of the darkness. Aila turned and saw Queen emerging from behind a rock. "Ace and Joker attempted to make dinner for us; let's go see if it's edible. I think it's meat though." she said grouchily. 

"Haha, you're a vegetarian, aren't you?" Aila and Queen walked back to the campsite together, chattering happily. She could hear Ace and Joker arguing at the campsite ("Look at what the hell you did! You burned our dinner! Well, old man, at least I caught our dinner! For the hundredth time, stop calling me old man!"), and smiled at the people around her. These mercenaries weren't so untrustworthy after all, she thought. Queen liked her, and Ace and Joker weren't so bad after she had gotten used to their immaturities. She turned and looked at Jacques, who was silently trailing behind her. He was walking slowly, once again lost in his thoughts. Suddenly, a childish grin spread over Aila's face."Hey, Jacques, let's see who can run the fastest now! Race you to the campsite!" She turned, laughing, and took off, with Jacques running and trying to catch up to her. 

"Well." said Queen to herself, who had been left behind. "Jacques seems to have warmed up to Aila." She looked at the camp in the distance, where she saw Aila jumping up and down and cheering after winning their little race. "Who knows what will happen with those two? I guess whatever will happen, will happen." Shrugging, she ran to the campsite to help settle the dispute between Ace and Joker and to prevent them from maiming each other. 

___

**AN**: Ah, what a change from my last fic, "His Queen": incredibly depressing to happy and fluff-full! I love the SFDF so so so much! Joker and Ace banter automatically makes anything fun to write. Just FYI, I'd rather have Jacques and Aila stay friends than become romantically involved. Fanfiction with Jacques is so bloody hard to write; I had to give Aila most of the dialogue lines since he never bloody talks! It's okay, Jacques, all the crazed fangirls out there still love you! Oh yeah, if you're still reading this, please please please comment! You make me a happy little child when you do! Oh yeah, muchos kudos once again to **Eightfold** and her lovely fic "Slash and Burn". Read it if you haven't read it yet!


End file.
